Well, dear readers, it is late and therefore I must write these here notes in a hurry for I have a busy little day tomorrow doing busy little things. It’s hard to believe that it was a year ago that we opened my production of Doug Haverty and Adryan Russ’s musical, Inside Out. It was a wonderful experience, a great cast, and I was very proud of the production in every way, especially the performances, and taking what could be a static show and giving it a real inner life and energy, making sure all the comedy worked, and making the staging extremely fluid. So it was fun to have the cast back together again – five of the originals and one of our stand-bys – to rehearse for a little staged reading we’re doing at the Sierra Madre Playhouse on Wednesday night. And it was amazing to see how quickly they all got back in the groove of their characters and how much fun we had. Since there’s really no rehearsal time, we’re basically sitting a lot (but that’s the show), with occasional bits of small staging, mostly in the musical numbers. We’ll smooth all that stuff out at the theater two hours before show time. The rehearsal lasted about three hours. Our original MD, Alby Potts, couldn’t do the reading, so Tom Griep is filling in and played it really well right out of the gate. I only had tiny general notes, mostly to do with vocal energy and to be careful not to let the energy go into the scripts they’ll be holding – that’s always a tricky thing at these kinds of readings, but I think everyone knew exactly what I was talking about. Adryan and Doug were there to cheer on the cast. Adryan’s under the weather, and so was one of our cast members – I get nervous when there’s sick germs in the house so I did all my precautionary hypochondriac things, like taking Sambucol and Airborne.
After rehearsal, Doug and I went and had some food – I had a patty melt and a few onion rings and fries (they do a mash-up if you like) – I have to say the patty melt was the best it’s ever been and maybe the best I’ve ever had. Then I came back home, answered e-mails, and began writing the commentary for the Kritzerland show.
Prior to all that I’d gotten about seven and a half hours of sleep. I’d been awakened at eight by a call from the publisher and it was probably a call she didn’t enjoy because there’s yet another new “rule” this year and I told her I wasn’t having any of it and she said she’d work it out. I sent her an e-mail backup about it and copied the person with whom I made the deal to come back for my sixteenth book. You’d think after that many books that they’d understand that they don’t have to treat us like we’re novices who don’t know what we’re doing. Hopefully it will all be fine and delivered to their design team for assembling this week. After that, I went back to bed for another two hours of sleep. Once up, I got Doug Haverty everything he needed for the new book to go live on the Kritzerland site. And it is indeed live right now, so if you’d like to pre-order it, which we hope you will, now’s the time to do it. As always, I’ll have some fun extras to go with the book. I’m very excited to have people read this one. Here’s the direct link.
http://kritzerland.com/patrick_b_presents.htm
I got everyone their sheet music, songs are all chosen, and so that’s finally all done. I also wrote the blurb for the show and we’ll do the Facebook event page at the end of the week. Then it was rehearsal time. After all that followed rehearsal, I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on the Flix of Net entitled The Face of Love, starring Annette Bening and Ed Harris, with Robin Williams in a small supporting role. While it received a handful of okay reviews, most reviewers didn’t like it at all and I don’t think it had any play dates or, if it did, they were very minor. Of course, we have no place for this kind of film anymore, which is a shame. In the 30s, 40s, and 50s this kind of film was a staple of the cinema, the weepie. This is a little darker than some weepies, but a weepie it is. And you know what – I kind of went with it and enjoyed the ride. Like many classic weepies, the conceit is probably too far-fetched for today’s literal-minded audiences who can accept the stupidest movies ever made, but criticize movies like this as unrealistic. I mean, it is to laugh. Anyway, if you like a nice weepie, you might give this a try – both Ms. Bening and Mr. Harris are terrific.
Today, I’ll be up by ten, do stuff, then I have to meet some folks for a quick lunch, then I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, then the Darling Daughter and her hubby will be by to drop off their dog, whilst they mosey on over to the Wood of Holly to attend the taping of the Jimmy Kimmel Show. Then they’ll come back here and we’ll go to dinner.
Tomorrow we’ll head out to Sierra Madre early and eat dinner, then go to the theater at five and work for an hour, just going over anything where folks are up on their feet. Then we do the reading. The rest of the week is meetings and meals and book stuff and finishing the commentary for the Kritzerland show and seeing a couple of shows.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a quick lunch, hopefully pick up packages, do a jog of some sort, then I’ll babysit the dog and then after the taping we’ll all go out for a dining adventure, probably to the nearby Thai jernt. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite weepie films from any decade? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to be having this small reunion with Inside Out.